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March 2007 Issue
The good life
Lynne and Bill Haley survive a layoff
– and grow in faith
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Lynne Haley is a gracious woman. She
greets you at the door with a big hug. Her smile is
lovely. You can smell the aroma of her home-made chocolate-chip
cookies wafting from the kitchen.
Bill Haley is a man of jaw-set determination
and inner resolve. He’s had high-powered jobs
in New York and Florida.
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He’s worked for the rich and famous.
He’s also had the humbling experience of being out of
a job for a year. Of being deemed “over-qualified.”
And of doubting his own gifts. Chalk it up to irony, a difficult
Michigan economy and, perhaps … God’s plan?
For the Haleys, it’s been all of the
above: Fate playing a hand it seemed meant to play –
and then dealing a blow. An ensuing year of tumult and doubt.
And yet, a time of faith and hope, a season of love. As someone
who has the honor of telling their story, I can tell you there
is nothing more breathtaking than seeing wisdom and gratitude
refl ected in the shining eyes of two people who have “been
there.” A couple who has walked the walk that so many
Michiganders seem to be doing these days. The best thing is,
they’ve held each other’s hand along the way.
They were married in June 1994 and settled
in New Jersey later that year. For Bill, moving to New Jersey
was a move home and an easy transition back into big city
life – he had been born and raised in Carteret, N.J.,
which is right across the river from New York City. Lynne
was raised in Belding, Mich., and grew to love the excitement
of Manhattan.
“We’d take our families into the
city every Thanksgiving. We’d see the Macy’s Parade,
go to Rockefeller Center for ice skating, see shows at Radio
City Music Hall,” she said.
Lynne took a part-time job with a parish in
Springfield, N.J., close to where they lived. Bill’s
work as a real estate bond analyst took him across the United
States and to Japan and Brazil. In 1999, a business acquaintance
asked him to join his wealth management firm. Bill became
the wealth manager for a national talk-show host and other
celebrities. Perks of the job took him and Lynne into Manhattan
and out to Los Angeles where they were invited to celebrity
dinners and events.
“I can remember literally rubbing shoulders
with people like Julia Roberts and Michael Jordan,”
Lynne said. “I felt like I was Cinderella going to a
ball.”
It was a good life. Sure, Bill’s work
involved long hours. And big-city living could be hectic,
with snarled traffic and tough commutes. But their jobs were
professionally fulfilling. Life was glamorous in just the
right doses. And two beautiful children had been born to them,
Kyle and Colleen, with another, Katie, on the way.
Michigan state of mind
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Lynne was
returning home with Colleen after having dropped off Kyle
at preschool when she heard the phone ringing. It was Bill.
“Lynne, you’ve got to turn on
the TV! A plane’s hit the World Trade Center!”
Bill’s office was in Ramsey, N.J., across
the Hudson River from Lower Manhattan where the World Trade
Center was located. Lynne turned on the television in time
to watch the second plane slam into the second tower. It is
an understatement to say the lives of so many people changed
in those seconds. For Bill and Lynne, the terrorist attacks
confirmed a growing urge to move to Michigan where Lynne’s
family lived. Bill’s work had been taking him more and
more into the city and, even before the terrorist attacks,
doing business downtown often meant 14-hour days.
“We prayed about it for a couple of
years, eventually deciding it was time for a different quality
of life,” Lynne said. “That became our motto:
Quality of life.”
Signs were pointing in the right direction:
In the spring of 2005, they put their house on the market,
and it sold in less than a day. They visited West Michigan
and immediately found a place on some acreage in Ottawa County’s
Tallmadge Township. Lynne loved the farmhouse look and wrap-around
front porch.
Bill joked, “Great. I’m going
to be Oliver Douglas from Green Acres.”
Bill had some job interviews lined up, ultimately
getting an offer at a “boutique” wealth management
firm. And the kids had visited St. Anthony School in Grand
Rapids and loved it.
“Everything just fell into place. We
took it as a sign that moving to Michigan was the right decision,”
Lynne said.
Murphy’s Law or God’s
Plan?
If you’ve got a shred of Irish in you
(Lynne has a quarter and Bill has a lot!) superstition would
start to kick in right about now. Things were going too well.
But when Bill’s new boss said his position was being
eliminated due to lack of funding and an unclear direction
for the firm’s future, it was a swift and shocking blow.
It was a few weeks before Christmas. Bill and Lynne chose
not to tell the kids right away. But Colleen guessed.
She wrote him a note: “My Christmas
wish is that my Dad finds a job that he likes before Christmas.
I am praying for you every night. I love you.”
Bill was adjusting to the layoff and putting
it into perspective. He had already begun his job search,
was meeting new people, networking, volunteering, probing
Internet job-search sites and knocking on doors. He was concerned,
but not panicked. Most of all, he was focused. “Don’t
worry, Colleen, it’s all fine,” he told his daughter.
But, as the months went by, Bill and Lynne
learned that some things are beyond your control. Michigan’s
economy lagged behind the nation’s; most local companies
just weren’t hiring. Suddenly, it seemed his skills
and experience, while valuable, were not needed. In fact,
some potential employers said he was over-qualified.
“These were very nice, gracious people.
They took the time to meet with me, gave me referrals of other
people to interview with, shared with me their insights about
doing business in West Michigan,” Bill said. “They
just didn’t have jobs available. “What was so
frustrating was I had never been out of work. I hadn’t
had to look for a job since just after college. And I love
to work. Being the main provider, it’s how you identify
yourself. And to find that – for whatever reason –
you’re not needed, well, you begin to doubt yourself,
who you are, what your role is. You begin to think, ‘Maybe
it’s me.’”
Lynne shared his frustration. “It was
a roller coaster. We’d get so excited when he had an
interview. We’d call our parents and say, PRAY! PRAY!
PRAY! And when it didn’t work out, we’d come crashing
down.”
She developed a philosophy of taking one day
at a time.
“I’d just go straight through
the day. I would tell myself not to dwell on the past and
that I couldn’t get too caught up in the ‘what-ifs’
of the future.”
Their children were wonderful with words of
love and encouragement. Colleen would write her father more
notes and leave them on his desk: “Dad, you got to have
FAITH!” said one note.
“Jesus, take the wheel”
Even though Bill was busy with his job search,
without full-time work, time opens up before you. Time to
fill. For Bill and Lynne, God filled in those spaces. God
did the driving.
“We started going to Mass together on
Friday mornings – the all-school Mass at St. Anthony’s,”
Lynne said.
Members of the parish who knew what the Haleys
were going through would greet them with words of encouragement.
The parish community began praying for them and others in
similar situations. Bill started saying the rosary. He found
it brought him great peace and clarity.
In the summer of 2006, a job opportunity fell
into Lynne’s lap. St. Anthony’s was seeking a
new director of religious education.
“When Bill first lost his job, we didn’t
think the search would take so long, so I kept on being a
stay-at-home mom. But by that summer, I needed to do what
I could to help out. When this job opened up, it was a perfect
blessing.”
As St. Anthony’s DRE, Lynne once again
was working in her chosen field. The full-time job provided
much-needed income and benefits. Best of all, she was working
at the same place where her children went to school.
When it rains, it pours
In the fall of 2006, Bill got a call back
from one of the companies with which he had interviewed.
“They were making me an offer –
what a feeling it was!” he said.
The euphoria was about to double: Another
firm with which Bill had interviewed made him an offer that
same week.
“I was literally shaking. I couldn’t
believe it. I was so happy – it’s indescribable,”
Bill said.
He accepted a position as vice president with
The Charter Group, a downtown Grand Rapids firm that facilitates
mergers and acquisitions of companies. The long nightmare
– 364 days of looking for work – was over. Bill
and Lynne were, as the saying goes, a year older and a year
wiser.
“Looking back, there was a plan,”
Lynne said. “God’s plan. It was a hard time, full
of doubt. But it was also a time in which we grew closer as
a couple and closer to God. It didn’t hit me until this
happened to us that Jesus walks this journey too. Wherever
you are in life, he’s there every step of the way.”
For Bill, his commute is no longer the extremes
of 1.5 hours into Manhattan or 5 minutes down the stairs and
into the home office. It’s 15 minutes from the driveway
to Monroe Avenue. Along the way, Bill says the rosary every
morning by heart.
The Haleys now have the quality of life they
have been seeking, enriched by a year filled with love and
hope and faith. Especially faith. As daughter Colleen put
it so appropriately, “You got to have it!”
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